Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 184 (2)

Effect of Rolling Bed on Decubitus in Bedridden Nursing Home Patients

TAKESHI IZUTSU, TOSHIFUMI MATSUI,1 TOSHIHIRO SATOH, TAKAYUKI TSUJI and HIDETADA SASAKI1

Miki Hospital, Maesawa-Machi 029-4201, and 1Department of Geriatric Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8574

  • Decubitus is one of the most difficult management problems encountered in bedridden elderly patients. Relief of pressure over decubitus is the most important principle of the management. We developed a rolling air cushion bed which turns the patient to a 15-degree inclined lateral position with an inflating ripple mattress, a longitudinally aligned air inflatable tube. The position of the patients was changed between right and left laterals and to supine every 15 minutes automatically. Nineteen bedridden patients with decubitus used the rolling air cushion bed for 3 months and 12 bedridden patients with decubitus used a conventional bed and had their position changes every 2 hours by care givers. Severity of decubitus was divided into 4 grades and the decubitus significantly improved from 2.8 (S.E. 0.2) to 2.0 (S.E. 0.3) after 3 months in patients using the rolling air cushion bed, while in patients with conventional beds it changed from 3.0 (S.E. 0.2) to 3.2 (S.E. 0.2) (not statistically significant). We suggest that the rolling air cushion bed would be beneficial to decubitus relief in bedridden elderly and may relieve labor by care givers.
    Key words--- rolling air cushion bed; bedridden elderly; lateral position; care givers; pressure sore
    © 1998 Tohoku University Medical Press

    Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 184, 153-157
    Address for reprints: Hidetada Sasaki, M.D., Department of Geriatric Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryomachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8574, Japan.

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